The present invention relates to a crawler pad for use in a mining machine. In the mining field it is necessary to have machines capable of transporting materials within mine tunnels. These machines generally comprise a large bin mounted on a transport means which consists of a number of crawler pads connected to a drive chain. The operation of one of these mining machines is much like a tank. When the drive chain is rotated the crawler pads dig into the ground and the machine moves.
Previously, the crawler pads which propelled the machine were two piece structures (see FIG. 1a). These prior art pads consist of two separate, identical pieces, both of which must be fixed to the drive chain, parallel to the ground at a substantially 90.degree. angle to the drive chain, extending outwards on opposite sides of the drive chain. As shown in FIG. 1(a), this was accomplished using a capscrew which affixed the two crawler pad segments to the drive chain. This two piece arrangement has one major problem. It is not durable. The two piece arrangement requires the joinder of the two halves against extremely high stress. Because of this the pads break frequently at the tram chain connection point. This results in significant repair expenses and machine downtime. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to alleviate the above-described problems.